The Key To Motivation

One area that people often struggle with is motivation. This is even more true if you are in pain.  But pain does not define who you are or what you can do.  The key is to stay motivated and keep a positive outlook. Think of motivation as a compound that is made up of three elements. The three elements are desire, determination, and discipline. These are what are known as the three D’s. Any endeavor starts with the desire to achieve an end result. But this desire can be just a passing fancy that you set out to do on a whim or as serious as a life path that you set out upon. The amount of energy you apply will be proportional to the amount of desire that you invest in attaining your goal. Determination is the resolve to reach a goal regardless of what obstacles are placed in your path. Nothing worth achieving is ever easy to obtain. If it were easy everybody would be doing it and there would be nothing special about attaining it. Discipline is something that needs to be continually practiced. There are always distractions which draw us away from working toward the goals we set for ourselves. To bring a dream to fruition we must continually work at doing the things that are necessary in order to reach our intended destination. To succeed you need to maintain a high level of all three of the D’s.
The next area that you need to focus on is called the locus of control. Some people feel that things outside of their influence determine their ability to reach their goals while other feel that it is their efforts that determine their outcome. The truth is that it is both, however you can only directly influence the things that are within your ability to control. Your personal feelings about your ability to control factors influencing attaining a goal is known as your locus of control. You cant control things that you do not have the ability to influence. So you must focus your energy upon the things that you have control over. That is not to say that you should ignore outside influences. Obviously you need to be aware of all of the factors effecting your ability to reach your goal whether they are internal or external. But your energy needs to be placed on navigating a path to success using those thing on which you have the ability to influence.
People that surround play a big part in your motivation. Some people are anchors and create a drag on you as you try to move ahead. They are the naysayer’s that disbelieve that you have the ability or are envious that you do. Others for one reason or another do not want to help you in any way. Regardless of their motivation you have to ignore them. It is not easy to do because they are often family or friends but you have to not take their negativity to heart. Other people are sails and create positive energy that helps you reach your goal. Their influence helps to move you ahead but they are a rare find. Often when you seek people out to act as a sail you find that they are an anchor. As discouraging as this is you have to take the hit and move on. It is mission critical that you do this. The acts of other people are outside of your of your control.
There will become a time when past successes will reward you for your efforts. But long droughts can precede any reward. But success is not measured by attainment alone. You have to remember to reward yourself for having the desire to work toward your goal, the determination to continue in the face of adversity and the discipline to do the right stuff even when the reward does not seem to be anywhere in sight.